Vincent Edward Scully (born November 29, 1927) is an American retired sportscaster. Scully is best known for his 67 seasons calling games for Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers, beginning in 1950 (when the franchise was located in Brooklyn) and ending in 2016. His run constitutes the longest tenure of any broadcaster with a single team in professional sports history, and he is second only to Tommy Lasorda (by two years) in terms of number of years associated with the Dodgers organization in any capacity. He retired at age 88 in 2016, ending his record-breaking run as their play-by-play announcer.

In his final season behind the microphone, Scully announced most Dodger home games (and selected road games) on SportsNet LA television and KLAC radio. He is known for his dulcet voice, lyrically descriptive style, and signature introduction to Dodger games: "It's time for Dodger baseball! Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good (afternoon/evening) to you, wherever you may be." He is considered by many to be the greatest baseball broadcaster of all time, according to fan rankings, Bleacher Report and Fox Sports.[1]

Early life

Born in the Bronx, Scully grew up in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan.[2] He worked delivering beer and mail, pushing garment racks and cleaning silver in the basement of the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City.[3] His father, Vincent Aloysius, was a silk salesman; his mother, Bridget, was a Roman Catholic homemaker of Irish descent from whom her son inherited his red hair. His biological father died of pneumonia when Scully was 4, and his mother later married an English merchant sailor named Allan Reeve, whom Scully considered "my dad."[4]

Scully discovered his love of baseball at age 8 when he saw the results of the second game of the 1936 World Series at a laundromat and felt a pang of sympathy for the badly defeated New York Giants. Since he lived near the Polo Grounds and because he was a member of the NYC Police Athletic League and CYO, he was able to attend many games for free and became a "very big Giants fan".[5] He decided, at the age of 8, that he wanted to become a sports announcer, fascinated as he was by football radio broadcasts.

Broadcasting career

From Fordham to CBS Radio

After serving in the United States Navy for two years, Scully began his career as a student broadcaster and journalist at Fordham University, where he majored in English.[6] While at Fordham, he helped found its FM radio station WFUV (which now presents a Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award each year), was assistant sports editor for Volume 28 of The Fordham Ram his senior year, sang in a barbershop quartet, played center field for the Fordham Rams baseball team (wearing number 17),[7] called radio broadcasts for Rams baseball, football, and basketball, earned a degree, and sent about 150 letters to stations along the Eastern seaboard. He received only one response, from CBS Radio affiliate WTOP in Washington, D.C., which made him a fill-in.

Scully was then recruited by Red Barber, the sports director of the CBS Radio Network, for its college football coverage. Scully impressed his boss with his coverage of a November 1949 University of Maryland versus Boston University football game from frigid Fenway Park in Boston, despite having to do so from the stadium roof. Expecting an enclosed press box, Scully had left his coat and gloves at his hotel, but never mentioned his discomfort on the air.[8] Barber mentored Scully and told him that if he wanted to be a successful sports announcer he should never be a "homer" (openly showing a rooting interest for the team that employs you), never listen to other announcers, and keep his opinions to himself.

Dodgers (1950–2016)

Brooklyn (1950–1957)

In 1950, Scully joined Red Barber and Connie Desmond in the Brooklyn Dodgers' radio and television booths. When Barber got into a salary dispute with World Series sponsor Gillette in 1953, Scully took Barber's spot for the 1953 World Series. At the age of 25, Scully became the youngest person to broadcast a World Series game (a record that stands to this day). Barber left the Dodgers after the 1953 season to work for the New York Yankees. Scully eventually became the Dodgers' principal announcer. Scully announced Dodgers games in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the club moved to Los Angeles. During that time, Dodgers broadcasts were heard over WMGM radio (1050) on the AM dial, as well as WOR-TV (channel 9) both in New York.[9]

Los Angeles (1958–2016)

Beginning with the 1958 season, Scully accompanied the Dodgers to their new location and quickly became popular in Southern California. During the Dodgers' first four seasons in Los Angeles, inexperienced baseball fans had difficulty following the action in the very large Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and it soon became common for them to bring transistor radios to the games to hear Scully and partner Jerry Doggett describe the action. This practice continued even after the team moved to the much smaller Dodger Stadium for the 1962 baseball season. Radio and television engineers often had difficulty compensating for the sound of Scully's play-by-play reverberating through the stands at Dodgers home games.[10]

In 1964, the New York Yankees offered Scully the job to replace the recently fired Mel Allen as their lead play-by-play announcer.[11] Scully declined the offer and chose to remain with the Dodgers. By 1976, his popularity in Los Angeles had become such that Dodger fans voted him the "most memorable personality" in the history of the franchise.[12]

Before 1966, local announcers exclusively called the World Series. Typically, the Gillette Company, the Commissioner of Baseball and NBC television would choose the announcers, who would represent each of the teams that were in the World Series for the respective year. For the 1966 World Series, Curt Gowdy[13] called half of each game before ceding the microphone to Vin Scully in Los Angeles, and Chuck Thompson in Baltimore. Scully was not satisfied with the arrangement[14] as he said "What about the road? My fans won't be able to hear me." In Game 1 of the 1966 World Series, Scully called the first 4½ innings. When Gowdy inherited the announcing reins, Scully was so upset that he refused to say another word.

Unlike the modern style in which multiple sportscasters have an on-air conversation (usually with one functioning as play-by-play announcer and another as color commentator), Scully and his broadcast partners Jerry Doggett (1956–1987) and Ross Porter (1977–2004) called games solo with Scully working the entire game except for the 3rd and 7th innings. When Doggett retired after the 1987 season, he was replaced by Hall-of-Fame Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale, who previously broadcast games for the California Angels. Drysdale died in his hotel room following a heart attack before a game against the Montreal Expos in 1993, resulting in a very difficult broadcast for Scully and Porter, who were told of the death but could not mention it on-air until Drysdale's family had been notified and the official announcement of the death made.[15] Scully announced the news of his death by saying, "Never have I been asked to make an announcement that hurts me as much as this one. And I say it to you as best I can with a broken heart."

On August 28, 2015, the Dodgers announced—via a series of cue cards presented by comedian Jimmy Kimmel on the Dodger Stadium video board—that Scully would be back for the 2016 season, his 67th with the Dodgers.[16] At a press conference August 29, Scully said 2016 would probably be his final year. "I mean, how much longer can you go on fooling people? So yeah, I would be saying, 'Dear God, if you give me next year, I will hang it up.[17]

Scully's final regular season game broadcast from Dodger Stadium occurred on September 25, 2016. His final game was broadcast from San Francisco's AT&T Park on October 2, 2016.[18]

Scully also contributed to the network's tennis and PGA Tour golf coverage in the late 1970s and early 1980s, usually working the golf events with Pat Summerall, Ken Venturi, and Ben Wright. From 1975 to 1982, he was part of the team that covered the Masters[19] tournament for CBS. Scully's network commitments led to his working a reduced schedule with the Dodgers, who hired Ross Porter to help pick up the slack.

Departure from CBS

Scully decided to leave CBS in favor of a job calling baseball games for NBC (beginning in 1983) following a dispute over assignment prominence (according to CBS Sports producer Terry O'Neil, in the book The Game Behind the Game[20]). CBS decided going into the 1981 NFL season that John Madden, whom CBS had hired in 1979 and who had called games alongside Frank Glieber and Gary Bender his first two years, was going to be the star color commentator of their NFL television coverage. But they had trouble figuring out who was going to be his play-by-play partner, since Scully was in a battle with CBS' lead play-by-play announcer Pat Summerall for the position. At the time Scully was the number two announcer for CBS, a position he had held since 1975, and was calling games alongside the former Kansas City Chiefs head coach Hank Stram, who had been promoted from CBS' number three broadcast team alongside Curt Gowdy.

To resolve the situation, both Scully and Summerall were paired with Madden[21] in four-week stretches, which coincided with each of their respective absences due to other engagements. While Summerall was away calling the US Open tennis tournament for CBS as he did every September, Scully called the first four weeks of the season alongside Madden. After that Scully went on to cover the National League Championship Series and World Series for CBS Radio, as he had done for the past few Octobers, and Summerall returned to the broadcast booth to work with Madden. Scully then teamed with Stram for the remainder of the NFL season.

After the eighth week of the NFL season, CBS Sports decided that Summerall meshed more with Madden than Scully did and it named him to be the announcer who would call Super Bowl XVI for CBS on January 24, 1982, at the Pontiac Silverdome.[21] An angry Scully, who felt that his intelligence had been insulted by the move, was assigned as a consolation prize that year's NFC Championship Game, which he called alongside Stram. Summerall took Stram's place alongside Jack Buck to call the game over CBS Radio.

On Saturday, June 3, 1989, Scully was doing the play-by-play for the NBC Game of the Week in St. Louis, where the Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs in 10 innings. Meanwhile, the Dodgers were playing a series in Houston, where Scully flew to be on hand to call the Sunday game of the series. However, the Saturday night game between the teams was going into extra innings when Scully arrived in town, so he went to the Astrodome instead of his hotel. He picked up the play-by-play, helping to relieve the other Dodger announcers, who were doing both television and radio, and broadcast the final 13 innings (after already calling 10 innings in St. Louis), as the game went 22 innings. He broadcast 23 innings in one day in two different cities.

After the 1989 season, NBC (along with ABC, with whom NBC had shared baseball coverage since 1976), lost the television rights to cover Major League Baseball to CBS. For the first time since 1946, NBC would not televise baseball. In the aftermath, Scully said of NBC losing baseball, "It's a passing of a great American tradition. It is sad. I really and truly feel that. It will leave a vast window, to use a Washington word,[22] where people will not get Major League Baseball and I think that's a tragedy. ... It's a staple that's gone. I feel for people who come to me and say how they miss it and, I hope, me."

Scully also served as an announcer for NBC's PGA Tour golf coverage during his time at the network, usually teaming with Lee Trevino.

After NBC (1990–2016)

After the National League Championship Series in 1989, Scully's NBC contract was up and he left to focus primarily on his duties with the Dodgers. Scully also returned to being the national radio announcer for the World Series, since CBS Radio gave him the position that Jack Buck had vacated in order to become the primary announcer of CBS-TV coverage of Major League Baseball. Scully's first assignment was the 1990 World Series and he remained in that role until 1997,[23] working with Johnny Bench for the first four years and Jeff Torborg for the final three. After ESPN Radio acquired the World Series radio rights from CBS in 1998, Scully was offered a continued play-by-play role but declined.[24] Instead, ESPN Radio used Sunday Night Baseball television play-by-play man Jon Miller for their World Series coverage for the next thirteen years.

As of his final season in 2016, Scully called approximately 100 games per season (all home games and select road games in San Francisco, San Diego, and Anaheim)[25] for both flagship radio station KLAC and television outlet SportsNet LA. Scully was simulcast for the first three innings of each of his appearances, then announced the remaining innings only for the TV audience. If Scully was calling the game, Charley Steiner took over play-by-play on radio beginning with the fourth inning, with Rick Monday as color commentator. If Scully was not calling the game, either Joe Davis or Steiner would call the entire game on television with Orel Hershiser and Nomar Garciaparra on color commentary.[26] while Monday, now doing play-play, joined Kevin Kennedy on radio.[27] Through 2014, in the event the Dodgers were in postseason play, Scully called the first three and last three innings of each radio broadcast alone, with Steiner and Monday handling the middle innings.

Scully missed most of the Dodgers' opening homestand of the 2012 MLB season (the first five out of six games) because of an illness. Scully returned to the announcers' booth on April 15, 2012, which was the 65th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's breaking of the color barrier in baseball. It was just the second time in 35 years the legendary sports broadcaster had missed a Dodger Stadium home opener: The first time was when he was busy broadcasting the Masters golf tournament for CBS in 1977.[28]

Retirement

On January 31, 2016, Scully announced that he planned to retire from broadcasting after the conclusion of the 2016 season; his final game was the team's October 2 finale at San Francisco. Scully left open the possibility of calling postseason games (but not the World Series) if the Dodgers were to advance; in September, however, Scully stated that he would retire after the end of the regular season and not call postseason games because he did not want to "say goodbye 12 different times." Scully was assigned a total of six road games for the 2016 season: the opening game in San Diego, two games in Anaheim, and the entirety of the three-game regular-season closing series in San Francisco.[29]

His final home game was on September 25, 2016, against the visiting Colorado Rockies. The Dodgers ended up winning on a 10th inning walk-off home run by Charlie Culberson and in doing so clinched the NL West Division title.[31] The final broadcast of his career was the Dodgers' October 2 game at AT&T Park against the San Francisco Giants.[32] Scully's commentary during his final game was simulcast in its entirety on radio, instead of only the first three innings.[33] After the game, he offered a prayer and a final message:[34]

At the time of his retirement, Scully was the last direct link the Dodgers organization had to the team's days in Brooklyn.

The following year, the Dodgers advanced to the World Series for the first time in 29 years. Despite many Dodgers fans petitioning Scully to come out of retirement, including Fox Sports announcer Joe Buck (who was quoted as saying, "I swear on my late father, to have Vin come do some of the series with us and in my place would be an honor"), Scully declined, preferring to keep a low profile and responding that "I've done enough of them."[35] Scully's decision echoed that of Myron Cope, who had retired after the 2004 season as the Pittsburgh Steelers color commentator, only to see the team advance to Super Bowl XL the following season and an unsuccessful fan petition to have Cope call that game. Scully did, however, take part in the first pitch ceremony prior to Game 2 with Steve Yeager and Fernando Valenzuela, teammates on the Dodgers team that won the 1981 World Series.[36]

Besides his sportscasting work, Scully was the uncredited narrator for the short-lived NBC sitcom Occasional Wife. Scully also co-hosted the Tournament of Roses Parade with Elizabeth Montgomery for ABC in 1967, served as the host for the NBC game show It Takes Two in 1969–70, and in 1973 hosted The Vin Scully Show, a weekday afternoon talk-variety show on CBS. In 1977, he hosted the prime-time Challenge of the Sexes for CBS.

WFUV, the Fordham University radio station that Scully helped found, presents an annual Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award for sports broadcasting. Scully himself was the inaugural recipient of the award in 2008.[53]

On September 5, 2014, Bud Selig presented him with the Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award. He was the 14th recipient and (after Rachel Robinson) second non-player to receive the award, which was created to recognize accomplishments and contributions of historical significance to the game of baseball.[55]

At Game 2 of the 2017 World Series, being played at Dodger Stadium, Scully participated in a pre-game ceremony; addressing the crowd over the PA system, he implied that he was about to throw the ceremonial first pitch, and introduced Steve Yeager to serve as a ceremonial catcher. However, Scully then claimed that he couldn't actually pitch because he had hurt his rotator cuff, resulting in him introducing the actual ceremonial pitcher, Fernando Valenzuela. Scully also uttered his famous introduction, "It's time for Dodger baseball!".[62][63]

Personal life

In 1972, Scully's 35-year-old wife, Joan Crawford, died of an accidental medical overdose; the couple had been married for 15 years. In late 1973, he married Sandra Hunt,[64] who had two children of her own, and they soon had a child together. Scully's eldest son, Michael, died in a helicopter crash at the age of 33 while working for the ARCO Transportation Company. He was inspecting oil pipelines for leaks near Fort Tejon, California in the immediate aftermath of the Northridge earthquake in January 1994. Although Michael's death still haunts him, Scully, a devout Roman Catholic,[65] has said in numerous interviews that he credits his religious faith and being able to dive back into his work with helping him ease the burden and grief from losing his wife and son.[66] He has encouraged devotion to the Virgin Mary, saying, "Her prayers are more powerful than those of the rest of heaven combined. No one was closer or more devoted to Christ on earth, so it only makes sense to see the same thing in heaven. Now, the Blessed Virgin seeks to help her spiritual children get home to spend eternity with her Son."[66] In 2016, Scully narrated an audio recording of the Rosary for Catholic Athletes for Christ in which he recites the Rosary mysteries and leads a group of responders.

An unauthorized biography of Scully, Pull Up a Chair: The Vin Scully Story, written by Curt Smith, was published in 2009.[67]

For many years, Scully reportedly did not attend (or even watch on TV) a baseball game he was not announcing. It was not until 2004, when he and then-Dodgers owner Frank McCourt attended a game at Fenway Park, that Scully went to a pro baseball game as a spectator. Scully and McCourt took in another game at Fenway in 2010.